By Victoria Macchi
Naples Daily News
NAPLES, Fla. — Six Immokalee firefighters who on Monday accepted severance packages to leave the force won’t be off duty for long.
Between Monday and July 11, five will begin work as part-time Collier County EMTs. The sixth took a job as an Isles of Capri firefighter.
“We were in the process of needing to identify some EMTs for our department anyhow,” EMS Deputy Chief Dan Bowman said. “We saw the issues, stepped up and got the process moving. We basically invited them to come in and test to try and get it done as quickly as possible.”
EMS Chief Jeff Page explained the agency had nine part-time positions available when the Immokalee layoffs were announced. The five firefighters joining EMS were already EMT certified.
“We know they know the area,” Page said. “There’s no learning curve for these guys.”
The firefighters have been working with Collier EMS personnel on a daily basis in Immokalee, Bowman said.
“Now they’re just going to be on our apparatus,” he said.
Although they will officially be hired as part-time employees, Page said the firefighters-turned-EMTs will be able to pick up enough shifts that “they’ll pretty much work full time.”
The Immokalee firefighter headed to Isles of Capri had worked part time there while working full time in Immokalee. He replaces a firefighter who resigned earlier this month, Isles of Capri Fire Chief Emilio Rodriguez said.
“I’m glad that we were able to save another position like that. Hopefully that will help Immokalee as well,” said Rodriguez, referring to the ongoing budget discussions in which the fire board is looking at how to stay financially afloat for fiscal 2012.
In May, six firefighters were laid off because of budgetary concerns. A month of wrangling over financial worries facing the district and the temporary reinstatement of those six firefighters culminated Monday in the departure of four junior firefighters and two senior firefighters. Several of the firefighters cited job stability as the reason for accepting a severance package that guaranteed pay through the end of June.
Bowman said EMS will do its best to schedule the new EMTs in the Immokalee area. The EMS station, however, is on the southeast side of Immokalee, and the fire station is on the northeast side - a situation that provides “lopsided” service to the area and leaves the western part of the community at a disadvantage in an emergency.
“You can very easily illustrate several scenarios where there would be an eight- to- 10-minute response time in a good part of that area,” Bowman said. “That’s too long.”
One option, he said, would be for EMS to help the fire district with coverage at Station 31 on Carson Road, which was shut down in May at the same time as the layoffs.
Since then, volunteers from Immokalee donated time and materials to repair that station, which union members cited in a grievance earlier this year over health and safety issues.
At a special board meeting Tuesday, fire commissioners accepted the buyout of a seventh firefighter at $28,000 a year for five years.
The commission is still debating two possible scenarios for budget cuts that were presented at the meeting, both of which include cutting 10 positions. The difference between the options would be a 10 percent or 15 percent pay decrease across the board.
With the departure of seven firefighters this week, and the elimination of a vacant administrative position, the remaining positions to be cut may come from the fire inspection office, which includes two staff members. If those were eliminated, inspection duties could be contracted out to the neighboring Big Corkscrew fire district.
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